AU GT3: Series Bathurst preview

PORSCHE POWER TO REIGN AT BATHURST THANKS TO MASSIVE SEASON-OPENING GT3
CUP CHALLENGE GRID
THE LARGEST ALL-PORSCHE grid to take to an Australian racetrack in more
than ten years will make up the opening round of the 2009 Porsche GT3
Cup...

THE LARGEST ALL-PORSCHE grid to take to an Australian racetrack in more
than ten years will make up the opening round of the 2009 Porsche GT3
Cup Challenge Australia at Mount Panorama later this month.

47 cars - made up of a competitive mix of stunning Porsche models - have
entered for the February 20 - 22 event to be held as part of the WPS
Bathurst 12 hour festival.

It makes the grid the largest all-Porsche field to have entered for an
event in Australia since the strongest days of the Porsche Cup series in
the 1990s.

The grid is made up of 26 cars in the GT3 Cup Challenge and 21 from the
predominantly Victorian-based Porsche 944 challenge, the two series
track-sharing once again in a true example of a ‘race within a
race'.

The talent packed grid features drivers from every state of Australia
and plenty of heavy-hitting Porsche names, including some of last years
key contenders and some new faces joining the fray.

New faces include former Carrera Cup racer Tony Quinn, who returns to
his VIP Petfoods 996 GT3 Cup, and ex V8 Ute Series racer Matt Kingsley
who will make his Porsche racing debut at Mount Panorama.

Fellow Queenslander Phil Holzberger - the president of the Queensland
Porsche Club - will also make his series debut in his ex- American
LeMans Series GT3 RS. Holzberger has recently contested mainly QLD-state
level races but will return to national competition at Bathurst behind
the wheel of the car that won the GT class at the 2002 LeMans 24 hour
race in the hands of successful team The Racers Group.

Max Twigg, another successful and highly experienced Porsche fan at
both state and national level - will also join the talent packed grid,
and with previous Bathurst experience in his GT3 Cup Car should be an
outright contender.

Two West Australian's, Walter Epple and George Bradbury, will make
the trek across from Perth whilst the grid includes nine Queenslanders,
seven Victorians (not including the mainly Victorian-based 944 challenge
entries), five New South Wales drivers and one each from South Australia
(Mark Krashos) and Tasmania (Ryan Flynn).

A majority of the field is made up by the Type 996 GT3 Cup Cars
contesting the Open Class, whilst several of the more-standard GT3
specification cars make up Class A. Flynn's 1990's
specification type-993 RSR is the sole Class B entrant.

In the Porsche 944 challenge defending champion Robert Lange and his
2007 rival Chris Lewis-Williams and other strong competitors including
ex-Atlantic racer Josh Hunt and experienced lady-racer Amber Anderson.

At 17, Victorian driver Justin Tate will be the youngest driver in the
field after deciding on a one-off return to the category he used to
springboard himself to national success in the Formula 3 Australian
Drivers Championship. Tate was a Victorian 944 champion aged just 15 and
last year finished on the outright podium of a Gold Star race as he had
a rapid rise to prominence in open wheel racing.

Round one of the 2009 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia series will
begin with practice on Friday, February 20th, ahead of three races held
across Friday and Saturday.